A second-round match between Toronto Nationals and Montreal Tigers was delayed by almost two hours after players’ protest. Both sides initially refused to take the bus at the scheduled departure time from the team hotel to the CAA Centre in Brampton. As per a report in ESPNcricinfo, it was a protest over unpaid wages.
A press release from the organizers said, “The game between Montreal Tigers & Toronto Nationals on Wednesday, August 7th, 2019, was delayed due to procedural issues between the players, the GT20 league, and the franchise owners. All the stakeholders had a meeting and addressed the concerns.”
Meanwhile, TV coverage of the match made no mention of the protest. Global T20 Canada made a statement via their Twitter account at 12:40 pm local time without making any mention of the protest. Instead, the account stated that the match had been “delayed due to technical reasons” and announced that it had been pushed back to 2:30 pm local time start from the originally scheduled 12:30 pm and that it would remain a full 20-over contest. A source confirmed that the team buses eventually left the hotel at 1 pm.
See Global T20 Canada’s tweet:
Statement: #GT2019 pic.twitter.com/tni1wPaB00
— GT20 Canada (@GT20Canada) August 7, 2019
Talking about the match, batting first Toronto Nationals posted 189 runs on the board in their stipulated quota of 20 overs and then restricted Montreal Tigers to 154 in 19.3 overs, thus winning the match by 35 runs and booking their place in the play-offs.